One on One with my Miss Artsy
So the other night, I had a one on one talk with my eldest daughter, Miss Artsy, who is now 10 years old. I felt the need to connect with her on a much deeper level before embarking on home schooling this coming term. I am guilty of putting her younger siblings' (a 3-year-old and a 1-year-old) needs before hers, and her schedule in the past only gave her time to do homework, eat and then go to bed on school nights. I needed to catch up with my eldest and this summer plus the coming school year just paved the way for a better relationship to be established between the two of us. Praise God for that. Home school needs teamwork not just amongst parents but also with the students, it is essential to be on the same wave length and mind-set to be able to support each other for homeschooling to be a success. I wanted to understand what her expectations were so that Mr. D and I can do our best to meet them. But first, I asked her about what the things she wanted us to do with her that makes her feel loved. Of course we had our ideas, being hands on parents gives you enough time with your kids to know them inside out. But I wanted her to voice them out and express herself more, laying it out there will also help both Mr. D and I to become better parents overall. So here's what she had to say:
- Come into my bedroom before sleep time, tuck me in and tell me stories about Jesus or about the time when you were little.
- Give me hugs and kisses and sit and listen to me when I tell you about how my day went. And give me your honest opinion about my drawings and sketches.
- Spend quality time just with me doing art work or science experiments.
- Give me nutritious food so I can grow up healthy and not sickly.
- At family meal times let's talk about what activities we could do together.
- More Daddy and Daughter dates to BookSale please.
- Let me play outside and ride my bike a lot.
- Do craft projects and shop for arts & crafts supplies online together.
- Discipline me the way God does to his children. It makes me feel that you care.
- Leave special messages in my desk or lunch bag.
It was encouraging to find out that we were already practicing most of the things she needed from us on a daily basis. But improvements and a bit more effort from Mr. D and I is still called for, so I listed down all of the things she told me as a very helpful reminder for us parents. I actually wrote it down on paper and kept the list in my daily planner so I can easily check through it each day, just to see if we're delivering on our promises to her. That done I then went on to asking her about home school and her thoughts on it. They were a bit short, she was too excited about the idea I guess haha. Here is what she told me:
- Staying at home all the time
- A fun learning approach of teaching through art on all subjects
- No more waking up early
- No more uniform and heavy school bags
- No more class delays even when there's a typhoon
- Healthy meals and snacks cooked from scratch by mom
- Lots of studying
- Lots of field trips
- Lots of fun art activities
- More time with family
That's definitely another list I have to right down to keep me in check when we officially start home school next month. That reminds me, I have to finish designing my home school lesson planner and blog planner this week so I can get them printed next month! I'll tell you more about those later on another article. Gotta go!
